The ‘War of the Future’ or something else...

I was preparing for a regular inspection visit to the community of Las Flores, municipality of Chinacla in the department of La Paz, Honduras.

The inspection took place in mid-May 2010 with Mr. Ely Nicholas from Marcala, La Paz, who since April 2010 is supervising construction of a new water system in this small village, 80 kilometres north of the capital Tegucigalpa. There were two main points of discussion: the location of the storage tank, and the possible construction of a new small dam in addition to the one which was budgeted for, so that it could provide the desired amount of water.

After several hours of travel we arrived at the community and contacted the president of the water board, Mr Jose Lopez, who guided us through the community to the prospective location for the storage tank. This is where we encountered our first problem.
We looked at the design and found that the outside designer had situated the tank in the middle of the street, where it would block traffic. Big mistake! We analysed a new location and marked it. Although the first problem was solved, we did not know what was still waiting us.

Walking beside the pipeline that was being constructed, we were faced with more questions from members of the community. While some wanted to air their problems others came with possible solutions. Don Geronimo Suazo told us, "Engineer, the amount of water we have is insufficient to supply all of these people." “Yes”, I responded. “We already know the problem and we will discuss the various solutions that can be provided”.

Together with Mr. Nicholas and some members of the community we visited the existing dam, which had already been earmarked for demolition and replacement. We measured the amount of water and, as we suspected, the flow was not sufficient to meet the demand. We were told that further up the mountain, a smaller dam from El Trapiche – a nearby community –experienced an overflow of water which was then wasted. It was also the nearest and most viable dam.

We walked uphill to the dam to measure the amount of water overflow, and found that it was insufficient to supply the whole community. By measuring the flows we found that connecting the flows of the two water sources through a new storage tank, the output from both sources more or less provided the desired flow for Las Flores..

And herein lies the rub

At the same time, word spread that someone from FHIS (Fondo Hondureño de Inversion Social) was in the community. Many people, mainly from Trapiche, took to the streets and within seconds, we were confronted by around 8 very heated, very angry, machete-wielding people.

The community board of El Trapiche approached us and asked angrily, “Why do you want to steal our water?" I said to myself, "We will surely receive a Machetazo!"

The two communities began arguing about the precious liquid and discussing their futures – What if our families grow? What if our community grows? “If we have a drought, where would we get water if our own supply is being stolen from us," exclaimed Hector Alejandro Perez, treasurer of the community of El Trapiche.

After hearing both points of view we tried to talk with the group from Trapiche. We explained that the intention was not to take the water out of their dam but that we were going to build a new dam to collect the wasted water.

Unconvinced by our explanation, the group said no to the proposal. Genuinely afraid, we decided to leave but promising to discuss the subject further in the next training session. Until then, the two communities would have to try to resolve the issue.

The ugly truth

A week later I was informed that the communities had reached an agreement, by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU). This would resolve the impasse and accelerate the construction process.

This occurred in the same week I met the leaders of the water board, to ask them why they had agreed so quickly and easily to sign the MoU. Don Jose replied, "The group wanted some money so we gave them ten thousand Lempiras (€400) as compensation."
"malorum est cupiditas" (money is the root of all evil) as they say in Latin. Who would have believed that while the prominent members of the community were ‘fighting’ for the water (the gold of the future) all they really cared about was their own economic welfare and not helping a community in need.

Carlos Mejia, Infrastructure inspector, FHIS, Honduras, e-mai; cmejiamartinez@yahoo.com